English Entertainment
Sex, shopping drive new TV channel launches in Europe
MUMBAI: Europe saw a record number of new television channels launched in 2003/2004 and 2005 is hotting up to be another bumper year for new TV services.
Adult entertainment channels were the strongest growing genre in 2004, leading strong growth across the board. The number of shopping channels also increased markedly.
Screen Digest’s latest research study shows the last few years of relatively flat channel growth have been replaced with a sustained boom, the likes of which have not be seen since the mid 1990s when digital television services first launched in Europe. 277 channels were launched in Europe during 2004 continuing the 200-plus trend seen in 2003 when 295 new channels launched. Data for the first half of 2005 suggests this year will also see in excess of 200 new channels launched. The previous highest annual number of channel launches was just 142.
Media consultancy Screen Digest believes that this new boom has been stimulated by traditonal pay TV and free-to-view satellite markets and new technologies like IPTV. Growth has been driven by popular genres such as movies, sports, children’s and music as well as a number of niche genres including home shopping, adult and wholly interatcive channels.
The adult genre was the strongest in 2004 and with 13 new adult channels already launched in the first half of 2005 this genre looks set to top the charts for the second time in a row. Other key growth areas in 2004 were sport, movies, entertainment and shopping and all look set to continue strong growth in 2005.
The UK now has the widest number of channels with 416 channels aimed specifically at UK viewers. Of these 47 are home shopping channels. There are also 32 music channels, 30 documentary channels, 29 adult channels and 24 children’s channels. The next largest market is France with a total of 246 channels, followed by Italy with 206, Spain with 108 and Germany with 93. Across Europe the large majority of these channels are carried by Pay TV with 70 per cent of all channels in operation being encrypted pay services.
Screen Digest’s senior television analyst Guy Bisson said, “While some of this apparent growth in new channels can be attributed to major re-branding exercises following consolidation in the European pay television market, underlying growth has also been impressive. Previously niche genres like adult entertainment and shopping are now entering the big league with the number of available services almost equalling some of the major genres like news, children’s and documentary. There is also evidence that this phenomenal growth will continue for at least another year.”
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
